2010-11 Projects

Flood Assessment

Frequent flooding has been observed in many parts of the Horn of Africa, and there is an urgent need to increase mitigation efforts and to address more explicitly the effect of the floods. The most affected areas are western and coastal provinces in Kenya and southern Ethiopia.The flood assessment will involve the mapping of vulnerability and impacts of floods, including the people, property, infrastructure and farmland at risk. The effort will be done collaboratively with UN agencies, NGO’s and National counterparts. The Objectives are to

• Build the vulnerability analysis on the basis of damage to the land-use categories and land-uses of the area concerned and establish levels of vulnerability like: very low, low, medium, high and very high
• Information to support the making of qualitative and quantitative assessment of the immediate vulnerability of the flood affected people, especially a risk and vulnerability analysis of the quality and pace of ongoing repair works vis-à-vis the flood displaced community in a participatory manner and to facilitate coordination between agencies, including the UN system and other donor agencies;

Vulnerability Mapping for food security

Food security analysis offers considerable latitude in terms of which outcomes may be desirable to anticipate, which threats under what particular circumstances and how to group exposed people into appropriate and useful units of analysis ranging from individual and households to Communities, Countries or Regions. Political and civil unrest in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda has had a serious effect on the food supply in various ways. Farmers have been displaced, aid operations imperiled, crops and food stores deliberately destroyed by warring factions. The assessment is aimed to provide an overview of the main determinants of vulnerability, as well as map vulnerability in the regions, and so provide qualitative and quantitative information that could be used both by Donors and other agencies, to guide programming and lead to Improved landuse strategies derived from the assessments that will reduce food insecurity and other facilities and promoting better use of information, through better understanding of the users’ needsThe Objectives are to

• Provide general guidelines and a strategy for establishing an integrated information system on food insecurity and vulnerability through creating a mechanism of sharing and inter-agency coordination aimed at improving utilization of information for decision-making and action programs at the Regional, National and local levels.
• Provide timely, accurate and operationally relevant information about the nature of food insecurity and vulnerability among the vulnerable for both emergency and development programmes.

Vulnerability Mapping for food security

Crisis mapping initiatives, information communication technology, and early warning systems have the potential to prevent mass atrocities, mitigate the effects of natural disasters, strengthen international aid agency coordination, improve resource allocation, develop timely policy, and help evaluate current humanitarian practices. Threat analysis will be used as an initial step in risk assessment for deliberate acts and to identify the sources and types of threats and their likelihood. The Threat and Risk Mapping and Analysis (TRMA) project will responds to this urgent need by supporting the establishment of a more effective mechanism for recovery and development planning within Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

The product will be a set of Information that will support in developing concepts and models of risk assessment, risk analysis, risk management, risk communication, and risk governance against diverse threats, such as cross border conflicts, banditry, pastoralism, militia gangs, resource-based conflicts , inter-clan/ tribal conflicts, natural disasters and pandemics